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posted by janrinok on Sunday July 26 2015, @03:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the as-different-as-hot-and-dark dept.

Electrochromic glass essentially uses electric charge to switch a window from allowing sunlight into blocking it out. Some have estimated that such "smart windows" could cut lighting needs by about 20 percent and the cooling load by 25 percent at peak times.

Now researchers at the University of Texas Austin have found a way to make them even better. They developed a novel nanostructure architectcure for electrochromic materials that enables a highly selective cool mode and warm mode—something thought to be impossible a few years back.

In research published in the journal Nano Letters, the University of Texas researchers along with scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory were able to get nanostructured electrochromic materials to control 90 percent of the near-infrared (NIR) light and 80 percent of the visible light. What's more, it only requires a few minutes to switch between these two modes, whereas previously reported materials took hours to make this transition.

This would make a huge difference for energy efficiency everywhere, since windows are the Achilles' heel of a structure's insulation.


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2015, @02:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2015, @02:27PM (#213849)

    Please keep posting interesting developments like this -- even if they don't generate any comments.

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